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Rocky Mountain Gamer: What Nintendo must do to stay relevant

By Marc Camron

Rocky Mountain Gamer

Posted:
01/23/2014 04:27:16 PM MST

Updated:
01/23/2014 04:36:48 PM MST

Nintendo has introduced us to many wonderful characters over the years. (Courtesy photo)

Game giant Nintendo will celebrate its 125th anniversary in September. That's right, 125 years. Most people don't know that the company that brought us "Donkey Kong," "Mario" and "Zelda" is one of the oldest entertainment companies around.

From 1889 to 1956, the company focused solely on manufacturing playing cards, mostly for a game called "Hanafuda." And while the company branched off into electronic gadgets and, eventually, video games, it continues to make "Hanafuda" cards.

It's important to understand the history of Nintendo when considering how the company approaches its video-game business in the 21st century.

When Nintendo produced the NES and SNES consoles, it ruled the roost. Every game-maker wanted its game to appear on a Nintendo system, even if that meant editing out objectionable material since, once upon a time, Nintendo regulated content much more stringently than the current ratings system does.

Then something strange happened — Nintendo stopped paying attention.

It started with the Nintendo 64. While this was an excellent system that boasted some incredible games, the choice to stick with cartridge-based media, rather than going to optical discs, as Sega and new player Sony did, had a decidedly negative effect.

Game cartridges were more expensive to produce and took much longer to manufacture and deliver. Additionally, disc-based formats can hold much more information and allowed programmers to innovate in ways not possible before.

Since the Nintendo 64, the company has seemingly stayed behind the competition. The last to embrace optical discs, the last to support robust online gaming, the last to support high-definition graphics — the list goes on.

That's not to say the company hasn't spurred some innovation. The addition of motion controls helped the Wii become one of the best-selling systems in the company's history.

Nintendo has also pioneered the use of the second screen (originally with the GameCube and more recently the Wii U), 3D graphics and nearly every significant advancement in handheld gaming, where Nintendo remains the undisputed champion.

Throughout it all, Nintendo has marched to its own drummer.

The unfortunate side effect of this is the consistent speculation regarding how Nintendo can no longer compete. Analysts say the Wii U is only about as powerful as the last-generation of consoles, putting Nintendo behind the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

The system is more difficult to develop for, and with its second screen and differently structured online system, companies have a challenge porting existing games to play on it.

This has resulted in Nintendo slashing its projected sales for the Wii U by nearly 70 percent (through March 31 this year, the end of its fiscal year). It has also fueled the doomsayers to speculate about the demise of Nintendo's hardware business. After all, how can a company survive when all the good games for its system come from Nintendo itself?

It helps that Nintendo first-party games are usually amazing. From "Mario" to "Zelda" to "Pikmin," these games go a long way toward keeping fans happy.

Plus, one can't discount the amount of goodwill and money the company derives from its handheld business.

Therefore, it's likely Nintendo can continue to make and support its own hardware for as long as it chooses.

It would, however, be nice to see the Japanese juggernaut get serious about competing with other consoles. But in order to do so, it needs to do a few things:

For its next system, Nintendo needs to embrace technology — fast memory, powerful processors and high-density discs (Blu-ray instead of DVD) will go a long way to evening the playing field.

Don't lose the innovation; just make sure the console has the power to run the latest third-party games.

It also needs to listen to its customers. While not every gamer wants a do-everything machine such as the Xbox One, customers want a robust, easy-to-use online solution, comfortable controllers and a wider variety of games (including M-rated offerings) rather than just the same franchises, beloved as they are.

While Nintendo's hardware business might not be dead, it's certainly damaged. Great software goes only so far.

So, hopefully, Nintendo will pay attention to its mistakes and correct them with its next hardware offering (the development should begin soon), because a company this innovative deserves to be around another 125 years.

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